This smoked pork tenderloin is a great way to use up leftover herbs that are a little past their prime. And because pork tenderloin is such a lean, tender cut of meat, smoking it isn't an all day process. The sage really permeates the meat during the smoking process and provides flavorful backbone to this dish, but the other herbs add a great depth of flavor too. Try using this smoking technique with other lean meats such as salmon for great results!
Ingredients
- 1 large bunch semi-fresh sage and other herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme, etc), starting to dry out but not bone-dry
- 1 cup wood chips (we used hickory)
- 2 whole pork tenderloins about 1lb each, trimmed
- 1-2 tbsp dry rub (Store bought is fine. Equal parts cumin, brown sugar, and paprika is a good start if you want to make your own)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Soak wood chips in water for at least 30 minutes, or overnight if you think of it.
- Pat the tenderloins dry and sprinkle with salt and dry rub. Let them sit on a wire rack in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours and remove 15 minutes before cooking.
- Place drained wood chips on a large piece of foil and top with your semi-fresh herbs. Close the pouch up and poke a few holes in the top.
- Light about 10 charcoal briquets in a chimney starter and place another 10-15 unlit coals in the bottom of your charcoal grill. You want a low fire, so don't use a lot of coals.
- When coals are ready, place the lit coals on top of the unlit, and place your foil pouch on top of that.
- Place the tenderloins on the grill and close the lid. Leave the top vents open. You should start to see a lot of smoke seeping out the lid soon, and you will really smell the sage! Resist the urge to open the lid too much.
- Let the tenderloin cook for about an hour, and make sure the fire doesn't get too hot. For fully cooked pork that is still tender and juicy, you want to reach an internal temperature of 145ËšF. An instant read thermometer is very helpful here. If you run out of fuel and the tenderloin isn't fully cooked, just finish it in a 200ËšF oven. It will already have absorbed plenty of smoke flavor at this point, so don't worry about it! Ours took another 20 minutes in the oven to reach 145ËšF.
- Let the pork rest for 15 minutes and then slice in! Serve warm.
Notes
This recipe assumes you're using a traditional charcoal grill, but you could easily translate this to a gas grill, or an actual smoker.
Smoking on a charcoal grill can be a little dicey. The key to this recipe is to keep your fire very low, so that the pork spends plenty of time absorbing the smoke before it's done cooking. It's much better to finish it off in the oven than it is to overcook it, so err on the side of undercooking it on the grill.
